News & Public Notices

City to tighten up on licensed premises

The Council of the City of South Perth has put in place stricter conditions for the approval of licensed premises within the City.

At the August meeting, Council resolved to proceed with legal action in regard to the Joint Development Assessment Panel’s (JDAP) approval of the Dan Murphy’s liquor store in Como.

Mayor Sue Doherty said the Council is strongly opposed to the development and intends to challenge the JDAP’s decision in the Supreme Court.

“Should it go ahead, there would be significant impacts to road safety, traffic, parking, social impacts and on the local amenity.”

“The legal action is complementary to, and consistent with, the strong approach taken by our Council to place tighter restrictions on licensed premises in the City.”

“Council has initiated a Scheme Amendment to give the City greater control over the permissibility of licensed premises,” said Mayor Doherty.

The amendment seeks to introduce new definitions and land use provisions for licensed premises, including ‘Liquor Store – Small,’ ‘Liquor Store – Large’ and ‘Small Bar’. The community will be invited to comment on the proposed amendment during October 2015.

Council also adopted a new policy, ‘Licensed Premises’ (P317) at the August meeting. The Policy has been developed in order to ensure that the type and scale of licensed premises is appropriate for the location, and to provide clear guidance for assessing officers and the determining body to ensure consistent decision-making.

The new policy requires that all prospective small bars and liquor stores complete an Impact Assessment Report that considers the effects of parking, noise, security, rubbish and the impacts on local amenity for properties within a 500m radius.

All applications for liquor stores and small bars will now also require consultation with the community.

“These new measures will provide our community with more opportunities to be informed and have their say on applications for liquor stores and small bars in their local area.”